Depreciation- haggling- Mini

I have just read the honest john guide on how to buy a new car but just wanted to be 100% on how cheap I can really get this car!
My 56 plate A3 was born september 06. It now has 27153 miles to be exact on the clock.
I am interested in a Mini cooper D (don't ask...) for september on the 58 plate. List price is £14,420 for the mini. I will be addding the pepper pack and MFSW as extras. Total cost on the mini website is £15,690.
Dealer 1 yesterday offered a lowish £12k for my A3 but after a bit more convincing offered £12600.
They keep saying the A3 is loosing £400/month. Is this sales talk or is this true- I mean this means this time next year it'll be worth peanuts- like £6-7k??
I thought Audi's did far better than that?

There's paper value and there's real world value, IMO.
On paper an A3 will be worth £xxxxx, but the trouble is there are so bloody many of them for sale.
If did a search on Autotrader for Audi A3 - diesel - under 40000 miles - under 3 years old.
There were 1075 returns.

FWIW though, I was offered a paltry trade-in for my wife's car, against a Mini.
So paltry, I decided to cancel the Mini order.

There are thousands for sale, mate.
I can quite believe no Audi dealer is bidding for it, they probably have too many already.
If you go into audi.co.uk's used car locator, they've got hundreds of under 30k miles, under two years old, 2.0tdi's for sale.
I can get a specific figure, it's maximum setting is 200+
No denying the A3 has been a sales success, but that has it's downfalls.
This is why I'm going PCH/PCP next.
I can't be done with the hassle/heartache involved with selling/trading in.

try one of the web brokers like bettercardeal (http://www.bettercardeal.co.uk/)
You can put all your PX stuff in there plus you may get discount on the new vehicle. The overall cost is what you need to look at (i.e. the discount can offset some of the old car depreciation but its rare to get over book and discount!)

Nope, still.
You try getting a discount on a Mini.
It was only 3 months ago I tried to buy one for the wife.
Using the usual online deal searches, the biggest discount I could find was £20.00!
I play with these deal locators all the time, it's the only time I've seen that.

Absolutely Zilch discount on mini's. I suppose why would you discount a car which sells itself.
It is frustrating though but helps when resale time comes. They hold on to their value, so much so I can't quite believe it!

Nope, still.
You try getting a discount on a Mini.
It was only 3 months ago I tried to buy one for the wife.
Using the usual online deal searches, the biggest discount I could find was £20.00!
I play with these deal locators all the time, it's the only time I've seen that.

Absolutely Zilch discount on mini's. I suppose why would you discount a car which sells itself.
It is frustrating though but helps when resale time comes. They hold on to their value, so much so I can't quite believe it!

Click to expand...

hi, i bought the mrs a brand new mini (r56) a few months ago, its was a factory order to my spec and got 3% off list price (wippeeee), thay just dont really do discounts like you said the car just sells so well anyway.... I put about £5500 down as a deposit and pay about £100 on month on a 24month pcp !!

spoke to the dealer the other day as looking at changing it in sept for a new one reckonks we still have about £4800 to use again and same sort of monthly pcp of £100 couldnt beleive it, such a good deal !!!

Nope, still.
You try getting a discount on a Mini.
It was only 3 months ago I tried to buy one for the wife.
Using the usual online deal searches, the biggest discount I could find was £20.00!
I play with these deal locators all the time, it's the only time I've seen that.

I px'd my 2006 A3 Tdi170 S-Line Sportback 3 weeks ago for a Mini Cooper S (the missus drives the car most of the time and has been hounding after one for a couple of years).

I got £15k for my 2006 A3 which had 26k on the clock. It was pretty highly spec'd with full leather, 20spoke alloys, privacy glass, cruise, chrome rails, heated seats, and a good few other bits but struggled to get £15k. The Audi dealer I bought it from is opposite the Mini dealership and wouldn't even offer on it!! Huntingdon Audi now have it up for sale at £17, 495: http://usedcars.audi.co.uk/carview.aspx?id=600330530

I was also told that used A3 prices are dropping at £300 to £400 per month at the moment.

It seems that Mini sales are also flagging though as we got £1k knocked off the price of nearly new Cooper S we bought, and paid £4k less then its origianal price. We put down a good sized deposit and ended up going the PCP route to avoid the hassle/stress of getting negotiating a px figure when we sell on.

The most amazing thing about the Cooper S against the Tdi170 A3 is the 2mpg difference we are getting in fuel economy on the weekly commute. factor in the price diifference between diesel and petrol and we are better off!!

I miss the A3's far superior quality and solidity and do feel the new price of a brand new Mini is rather optimistic to say the least, but throw a Mini down some B-roads and corners and the fun factor really kicks in.

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